How about a Hardware Compatibility List for UEFI

Hi all, How about creating a Hardware Compatibility List for UEFI systems (UEFI related info alone) in Archwiki. There have been lots of scatterred posts about UEFI from different users who have no idea about what it is and what to expect (although some of them are covered by Archwiki UEFI page). I thought a HCL for UEFI would be great, not just for Arch users but for linux users in general.

All the UEFI boot problem are related to the BIOS vendor (not specific to the actual system vendor).AMI Aptio UEFI does not seem to create any issue with BIOS-GPT boot or with UEFI boot with efibootmgr. It also allows launching UEFI Shell is required.Phoenix SecureCore Tiano UEFI does not seem to allow booting in BIOS-GPT mode and in UEFI mode does not work with efiboomgr, and no access to UEFI Shell. No idea about Insyde H2O UEFI.

Although AMI Aptio is not fully compliant with UEFI Spec (and does not completely play well with Linux UEFI), it the better one amongst the three. I particularly need more testing from users wiht Phoenix (I guess many recent Dell and Lenovo ones) and Insyde UEFI (mostly HP, maybe Acer). AFAIK Asus, MSI and Gigabyte all use AMI APtio as the UEFI in their mobos.

To all users: Please post the above info whenever you ask any UEFI related question anywhere in the forum. Its difficult to understand whet went wrong without knowing which firmware is it. UEFI booting in linux (particularly Archboot) is still WIP.

To all archboot UEFI (non Mac) users: Can you post your UEFI install experience with Archboot (both using Archboot setup script or manually done)? Right now Archboot simply implements what UEFI Spec mentions, it does not contain fixes or workarounds for issues that plague individual firmware implementations. Most of the testing was done in VirtualBox and Tianocore EDK2 DuetPkg (Intel's UEFI reference implementation).

MODS: If this thread is not the right place to discuss this, please feel free to move it (but add me to the moved thread's notification list).

Re: How about a Hardware Compatibility List for UEFI

MODS: If this thread is not the right place to discuss this, please feel free to move it (but add me to the moved thread's notification list).

Its either here or under Kernel & Hardware. Tell you what, I'll move it there but leave a link in this forum (for now). You should remain subscribed to the thread even after its moved, though.

Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.Griemak-Bleeding edge, not bleeding flat. Edge denotes falls will occur from time to time. Bring your own parachute.

Also works fine with GPT partition map in UEFI mode but ONLY if the EFI partition is formatted as fat 16. It does NOT work if I use the wiki instructions which specify fat 32 even though that is what the specification says. As far as I know, the fat 16 partition set up I'm using is using efibootmgr. But perhaps I've misunderstood how it all works...

Also works fine with GPT partition map in UEFI mode but ONLY if the EFI partition is formatted as fat 16. It does NOT work if I use the wiki instructions which specify fat 32 even though that is what the specification says. As far as I know, the fat 16 partition set up I'm using is using efibootmgr. But perhaps I've misunderstood how it all works...

Cannot get it to boot from a GPT disk in BIOS mode.

I did not try archboot.

There is a (long) thread in the newbie section about this!

Seems like many Phoenix SecureCore Tiano firmwares (independent of OEM vendor) do not allow BIOS-GPT boot and also create problems with efibootmgr.

Any firmware having problem with fat32 is not following spec, did you try contacting lenovo support about this? efibootmgr just sets up the menu entry in uefi boot menu, it doesn't install the bootloader files in uefisys partition (which is done by grub_efi_x86_64-install in case of grub2). Formatting the uefisys partition (or even creating it) as fat32 or fat16 is not done by efibootmgr or grub-install. It is done manually by the user or by the distro installer. Did you have ay specific issue with efibootmgr like non-woorking menu entry or black screen (something like that).

Good this thread can be used both for collecting the info as well as discussion for HCL page. I will start one in Archwiki shortly (unless someone beats me to it...).

Re: How about a Hardware Compatibility List for UEFI

I got the grub 2 entry in my UEFI boot entry OK. (At least, it was there last time I checked!) So if that's what efibootmgr does, it worked OK (independent of fat 32 or fat 16 etc., as you explained). Using it to boot didn't work with the EFI partition formatted as fat 32 but that is presumably an independent problem. The menu entry appeared long before I figured out the fat 16 bit.

Everything seemed to work OK once I formatted the EFI partition as fat 16. (Actually what I had to do was let Ubuntu's installer lose just to see what it does differently - apart from completely wiping the EFI partition which I expected. Turns out what it does differently is fat 16. I have no idea why Ubuntu's installer does this although I'm grateful since I would never have thought to try it.)

I haven't reported it to Lenovo. I assumed they'd just tell me to use Windows.

Re: How about a Hardware Compatibility List for UEFI

Try community/hardinfo package

OK. I was using this (with the KDE gloss) but I guess I wasn't sure which chipset... So it might be: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200or it might be: Intel Corporation HM65or it might be something else. Does either of those look right?

Re: How about a Hardware Compatibility List for UEFI

I have started a new page https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HCL/Firmwares/UEFI for this but have not added any content as of now. I don't know exactly how to code table content in wiki language (I have used WYSIWYG editor though which does not seem to be present in Archwiki's software).

Re: How about a Hardware Compatibility List for UEFI

Just got an Acer Aspire 7739Z with InsydeH2O EFI 3.5 firmware, anyhow it disabled the UEFI Boot by default. Played around with InsydeH2O mod, it was possible to tweak the UEFI Boot enabled after patching both the HII database and the SetupUtility code that masked the Advanced and Power form sets.

While booted with Archboot on USB stick, InsydeH2O read no /EFI/ stuffs from the ISO-image-on-USB such that initiated legacy BIOS boot. As you know, it would prevent your from running 'modprobe efivars' and 'efibootmgr' to complete the grub2-uefi tasks.

On Archboot CD, InsydeH2O read stuffs under /EFI/ and initiated UEFI boot. Anyhow, InsydeH2O failed to launch UEFI Shell 2.0, since it reported "UEFI Specification 2.0" in response to "ver" command in the old UEFI Shell 1.0. Anyhow, none of the four Arch Linux options booted well, all crashed with "error: efidisk read error" while running the line 'initrd initramfs-linux.img' ... As if a firmware issue, since they booted smoothly in BIOS boot ;-(

More accurate info next time while I have access to it home ;-)

the.ridikulus.rat wrote:

Hi all, How about creating a Hardware Compatibility List for UEFI systems (UEFI related info alone) in Archwiki. There have been lots of scatterred posts about UEFI from different users who have no idea about what it is and what to expect (although some of them are covered by Archwiki UEFI page). I thought a HCL for UEFI would be great, not just for Arch users but for linux users in general.

All the UEFI boot problem are related to the BIOS vendor (not specific to the actual system vendor).AMI Aptio UEFI does not seem to create any issue with BIOS-GPT boot or with UEFI boot with efibootmgr. It also allows launching UEFI Shell is required.Phoenix SecureCore Tiano UEFI does not seem to allow booting in BIOS-GPT mode and in UEFI mode does not work with efiboomgr, and no access to UEFI Shell. No idea about Insyde H2O UEFI.

Although AMI Aptio is not fully compliant with UEFI Spec (and does not completely play well with Linux UEFI), it the better one amongst the three. I particularly need more testing from users wiht Phoenix (I guess many recent Dell and Lenovo ones) and Insyde UEFI (mostly HP, maybe Acer). AFAIK Asus, MSI and Gigabyte all use AMI APtio as the UEFI in their mobos.

To all users: Please post the above info whenever you ask any UEFI related question anywhere in the forum. Its difficult to understand whet went wrong without knowing which firmware is it. UEFI booting in linux (particularly Archboot) is still WIP.

To all archboot UEFI (non Mac) users: Can you post your UEFI install experience with Archboot (both using Archboot setup script or manually done)? Right now Archboot simply implements what UEFI Spec mentions, it does not contain fixes or workarounds for issues that plague individual firmware implementations. Most of the testing was done in VirtualBox and Tianocore EDK2 DuetPkg (Intel's UEFI reference implementation).

MODS: If this thread is not the right place to discuss this, please feel free to move it (but add me to the moved thread's notification list).